Bobby Fischer's Preliminary Skirmishes with FIDE

According to FIDE regulations each side was required to submit a list of fifteen acceptable playing sites, on the basis of which a suitable choice was then to be made. With the initial offers the world wide interest in the match became quite evident. Sums of anywhere from $100,000 to $150,000 as prize money, exclusive of expenses, were proposed by a wide variety of locales, from Chicago to Belgrade. It was however well understood that Bobby would not play in the U.S.S.R. and that Spassky, apparently in retaliation, would not play in the U.S., even though according to all reports he liked the country. So it had to be outside these two countries.